‘I’m a Waspi woman who lost vital years with my ill husband by having to work'

A Waspi woman who will become eligible for her long awaited state pension has revealed her pain at having lost crucial years with her late husband due to having to work longer than planned.

Kim Smith, 65, who lives in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, told that instead of celebrating turning 66 on Tuesday, her birthday will highlight everything she has lost and reignite the anger she feels at being forced to sacrifice time with her dying husband Neil, who she was married to for 42 years.

Ms Smith is one of the 3.8 million Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) born in the 1950s who were affected by the change in state pension age from 60 to 66 without proper warning.

The mum of one and grandmother of three says the extra six years of waiting for her state pension had huge repercussions on her life as she was forced to juggle working with caring for her terminally ill husband.

The financial pressures led to them using their savings and they were forced to move out of their home and rent instead as they couldn’t afford it.

“I feel incredibly angry and upset about everything that was snatched away from me,” she said. “It will feel very bittersweet when I turn 66 and I feel distressed because I could have had it a lot earlier and spent quality time with my husband before he died.

“While it is nice that I will finally get my state pension from May and it will help me a bit, it won’t make up for everything I’ve lost.

“It is too late and it robbed me of precious time with my husband.”

Ms Smith, who worked as a pub restaurant manager for 35 years along with her husband, says their world was torn apart when Neil was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2014. At this point, Ms Smith thought she would be retiring at the age of 60 in 2018 and had not received any documentation telling her otherwise.

As the cancer spread to her husband’s lungs and bones and became terminal, he was no longer able to work and Ms Smith ended up having to give up her job to look after him.

Ms Smith then discovered at the age of 60 from reading about it in newspapers that she wouldn’t be getting her state pension at 60 as she had anticipated, but would have to wait until the age of 66.

“We had to move home and give up our house because we had lost my husband’s salary and couldn’t afford it,” she said. “My husband wasn’t working because he was terminally ill and then I had to give up my job to look after him.

“I had to nurse him in a very small cottage that we had to rent from a charitable trust and we had to live off the little bit of savings we had.”

Ms Smith explained they had bought their home with a family member who had put most of the money in. So when they sold it, they only got about £4,000 themselves, which was soon swallowed up.

She ended up having to get a part-time job as a care assistant in a care home for dementia patients and juggled that alongside caring for her husband. “Neil was bedridden and I nursed him at home in between juggling my job,” she said.

“It was horrific and upsetting because I couldn’t spend all the time I wanted with him and we knew he was going to die.”

Ms Smith’s husband died in 2021 at the age of 61 and she feels furious about the time she lost with him due to having her pension delayed. “I could have spent so much more time at home with Neil when he was terminally ill instead of having to go out to work to earn some money,” she said.

“It’s a terrible state of affairs when you can’t even afford to spend time with your loved ones when they are dying.

“My husband was 61 when he died so didn’t even get his state pension. We worked hard all our lives and lost out on time together because of my pension being delayed for six years.

“I only got a letter last minute when I was 60 saying my pension age was now 65 and then that changed to 66.

“It has been a very difficult journey and the pension change had such a deep impact on my life.”

Ms Smith told she also lost out with her private pension as she had stipulated a retirement age of 60 in line with what she thought her state pension was. “I lost the final six years of my private pension and the latter part of that is when you make the most money from it,” she explained.

“I reckon I have probably lost around £90,000 through the lost years of my private pension and state pension.”

Following the official report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which ruled in favour of the 3.8 million Waspi women in March and said they are owed compensation because of government failings in notifying them of the changes, Ms Smith is urging immediate action.

“I think they need to sort the compensation out fast,” she said. “Too many people are dying without getting justice. Justice should be done as quickly as possible.”

Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, said: “Tragic stories like Kim’s show just how devastating the impact of the DWP’s failure to properly communicate state pension age changes was for tens of thousands of women across the country.

“Although Kim finally becomes eligible for the state pension next week, it comes just too late for her, with no time to adjust her retirement plans and the loss of precious time with her husband in his later years.

“Rapidly increasing numbers of MPs across the Commons, including many Conservatives, are backing Waspi’s calls for an urgent debate and vote in Parliament, to deliver compensation to women like Kim.

“With 3,000 women dying since the release of the ombudsman’s report last month, we simply cannot afford to wait any longer for justice to be delivered.”